Various embodiments of this disclosure relate to low-energy devices and, more particularly, to data communication with low-energy devices.
From an information technology perspective, machines, people, peripheral devices, and other entities can all be assets. Near-field communication (NFC), such as radio-frequency identification (RFID), is commonly used to track these assets for the purpose of asset management. RFID tags are generally low cost, making them convenient and efficient for massive deployment. However, given the short range, when using RFID tags, an asset manager must get close to each asset to collect any necessary data. For instance, for passive RFID tags, the range is generally limited to ten to fifty centimeters. Thus, collecting asset information leads to a high degree of error, especially in complicated data center environments. Further, in a dangerous environment, such as a coalmine, it may be nearly impossible for the asset manager to get physically close enough to each asset to acquire necessary asset information.
As chips become cheaper, more long-range technologies are used for asset management. These technologies include WiFi, ZigBee, and wireless serial devices. Devices with these technologies can be expensive to manufacture and consume a high amount of power. Further, each such device requires a processor, such as a microcontroller unit (MCU) or central processing unit (CPU). These processors need more power than a common battery to support steady and continuous running for months or years. Thus, implementation of these long-range technologies may require a power supply, which may be problematic for practical deployment.
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is an emerging energy-efficient technology. BLE devices are power efficient with low-cost and easily replaceable batteries. However, these devices are able to pair with only a single other BLE device at a time and, thus, cannot support networks with N-to-N transmissions.
The traditional Bluetooth protocol supports both piconet and scatternet, but both of these have limitations. In piconet, a master node can connect to no more than seven slaves in its short communication range. In scatternet, a slave node acts as a bridge between piconets to communicate between the piconets. To this end, the slave node must stay within range of both piconets and support communications in the corresponding frequency channels.